Think of it this way:
- Group of best / excellent / great / good / suggested VCRs
- Group of good / decent / okay VCRs, mostly non-TBC units
- Group of not suggested / crap / consumer / junk VCRs
The JVC SR-V101 is in the first group -- suggested. So that's good.
Within that group, certain individual VCRs are identified as "the best" of that group. No, the SR-V101US is not one of those. But no, it's not bad either. In the JVC line, for NTSC (USA/NA) models, the 9600, 9800 and 9900 are considered "best" as per feedback of many users, for more than 15 years. Both this site, and others.
I have an SR-V10U -- not 101, but 10 -- and like it. Is it one the "best" units? No.
Is it bad? Also no.
If the 9600 is in at least as good a shape as the 101, I'd get the 9600.
Lesser quality transport = ALL JVC are lesser than Panasonic transports. But there's more to a VCR. Panasonic has quirks, too.
No dynamic drum = that may not matter. The dynamic drum has downsides, too. It's why I have a with-DD 9800, and a non-DD SRV10U. It can help tapes, it can make some worse! Generally, yes, it's better to have.
Possibly red/green banding, unless that was just that one unit = must have have been that one unit. Such an error is NOT model-wide.
The $150-350 range is average. It depends on condition, usage, completeness, etc. $300 is maybe about $50 too high for that exact model. It was $300 when new. The 9600 and 9800 usually command the higher price, because of features, and rarity. Those were $450 new, in 1990s dollars (probably at least $600 in 2013). The "SR" models are far more common, especially the V10U model. They just made lots of them at the end there. It's almost as if they wanted to saturate the market before leave S-VHS.
Hope that helps.
If you have followups, ask here.